Beausoleil

I saw the well-known Cajun band Beausoleil perform a free concert on the quad at UC Davis last night. It was perfect weather for a picnic/concert on the green. I used to listen to this band a lot, even before I worked for their first label, and last night was a reminder of why.

I generally prefer more archaic Cajun music, such as the incomparable Wade Fruge (check out J'ai Ete Au Bal for some beautiful footage of traditional Cajun music), but the musicianship of Beausoleil is outstanding. I think Michael Doucet keeps getting better and better (he can also be heard on the arch-traditionalist Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, along with Marc and Ann Savoy).

Beausoleil has a new album out. I have not heard it yet, but if it reflects what I heard last night, it will be good.

John Taverner, Proulx, and the rest of those Insipid Twits

The worst aspect of our musical culture, worse, even, than crime and violence saturated (c)rap music, are the timid, dull, inept twits that make up the backbone of the neo-tonalist movement. They generally merge their awful harmonic retreads with gimpy mysticism, a general feel-good worldview, and a rabid dislike of anything more interesting than their own pap.

As a rule, they are long-haired, "thenthitive" types who often dabble in vegetarianism, pouting, yoga, and other false religions. They tend to be (surprisingly) heterosexual, and use these nasty limp-wristed traits to attract the wrong sort of women.

The first of these on my list, John Taverner, a boring schlockmeister from England, is probably the worst of the bunch. Repulsed by the logic of the Western Tradition he went Eastern Heterodox and now seems to have moved even farther into Blavatsky land. It will be a good day when the last score of Taverner's treacle rots and the last recording is found unplayable.

"But," sputters my readers, "Proulx! How can you say that?"

Easy. Proulx is nothing but Marty Haugen played on pipe organ instead of piano/guitar. Useless, boring, awful. A disgrace to the traditions of the church, not the restoration thereof. Blech!

It looks like it's that time again...

Don Jim has his latest list up. So, here's mine:

1. "Infernum + Gaillard" composed by Anthony Holborne (1550-1603), performed by the Amsterdam Loeki Stardus Quartet.
2. "Segesta" by Lino Cannavacciuolo
3. "Sea of Heartbreak" written by Hal David/Paul Hampton and sung by Johhny Cash with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
4. "Ricordati Ragazzo" by Natalino Otto
5. "Here's That Rainy Day" written by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen and sung by Tony Bennett
6. "Lost Mind" written by Percy Mayfield and sung by Diana Krall
7. "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths
8. "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock
9. "Refrain 2" composed by Stephen Stubbs and performed by John Potter, Stephen Stubbs, John Surman, Maya Homburger and Barry Guy
10. "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed